


five alternate timelines Steve created and one he didn’t

by najak3



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Timelines, Ambiguous Relationships, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Post-Endgame, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 01:12:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18622018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/najak3/pseuds/najak3
Summary: Five seconds. Five timelines. And then one more.What could have happened in the five seconds when Steve was gone.





	five alternate timelines Steve created and one he didn’t

_ 1 mississippi _

 

There really wasn’t much Steve could do for the new 2014. The first thing he did was  go right to the Ancient One of 2014 to ask for her help and guidance, reassuring her of his good intentions. Bruce had recommended it, and Doctor Strange had agreed. If Steve wanted to correct the timelines as much as possible he’d need her help. She had been great. She’d used her time stone to revert Steve’s stones to their previous states of orb, cube, scepter and aether. And she’d gotten him some magical transport device that would help him get to the planets he needed to get to. 

 

She had also told him just how limited his options were for them, and their new timeline. Thanos had left his original timestream, taking his biggest warship and all of his followers with him, to Steve's 2023, where they’d all died. In their absence, things were bound to change. Maybe not all the crap that had gone down on Earth and on Asgard, since Thanos had had no part in Steve's mess with Tony or Thor's mess with his sister, but the Decimation would never happen here. And Steve couldn't change that. He could only accept it. 

 

And selfishly, Steve accepted it wholeheartedly. It wouldn't change his past, or the sacrifices that were made in his timeline. But for these people, for this timeline, things could be different. 

 

Replacing the power stone orb on Morag was easy enough. Quill was still out cold. After all, he’d only just been knocked out. 

 

Vormir was harder. When Clint had mentioned a “floating red guy”, the last person Steve could have imagined was Schmidt. Steve had done things on Vormir he would never tell another soul about. Some things he wasn’t proud of. Others he was. Punching Schmidt in the face one last time had been fairly satisfying, after all. Trading the soul stone for the people who had been sacrificed to it had been remarkably easy, considering no one had ever tried before.  Leaving them,  _ all  _ of them, in the new time stream had not been even remotely easy. But he only had one time device, and so he didn’t have any options. Steve would be eternally grateful to Gamora, who was as generous and kind as their Nebula had always said she was. There was a good life to live there, with Gamora and her people. Steve would always wish he could tell Clint what had happened with the soul stone on Vormir. But he had made Natasha a promise. And for her, only for her, he would keep it. 

 

_ 2 mississippi  _

 

In 2013, Steve really tried his best. The Ancient One had said he should try to minimize timeline divergence where he could so he did. But Asgard was much bigger than Thor had made it out to be, and even with jumping in the instant Thor and Rocket had left things were still very dicey. The whole palace was on guard, Dr. Foster had been moved to a new chamber who knows where after the unexpected attack that had left her oddly bereft of the Aether that had been killing her. Thor, the other Thor, was rampaging around trying to find the intruders and his hammer, and then dark elves had shown up and everything had gone to shit. In the end, he’d never even managed to get to Dr. Foster, even if he had had an idea of how to re-inject her with the aether. Instead he’d handed it off to the woman who had finally caught him, who strangely enough seemed to know why he was there, and how. Steve would have had words for Thor about talking to the mother of his past, but it's not like he had been able to do any better. He didn't know what changes his fumbling would cause in 2013, but he sincerely hoped it would be for the better. 

 

_ 3 mississippi  _

 

2012 was another lost cause. It was also where, in the end, he genuinely gave up caring about it all. Loki would do that to you. As would his own damn self, and shit but wasn’t that frustrating. He had a sudden swell of sympathy for all the people who’d been dealing with him over the years. Returning the scepter to Hydra had been. Well. It was frustrating, but it had had to be done. Thanos was still alive in this dimension, and they’d need Wanda to face him. Not that it had been smooth sailing. As much as he had gone in with the best of intentions and the highest of hopes, the Avengers had been on the lookout for a Steve doppelganger, and things had not gone well. Loki’s shapeshifting ass running around with the cube had not helped. Steve's only consolation had been the utter befuddlement that the whole shitshow had caused Hydra. Some of them were still convinced that he was on their side, and were completely off their guard when their Steve barreled right through them. 

 

As for himself, he had eventually given up on trying to retain the timeline again. There was no way to get Loki back in the box all on his own, and he didn't have the technology to wipe his own past self’s memory. The scepter sure hadn’t helped. 2012 Steve was more determined than ever to get to the bottom of the mystery of his doppelganger, and was stolidly investigating their last conversation where he had heard that Bucky could still be alive. So here in this new timeline these Avengers would still be together, no scattering to the four winds. They had a reason to stay together and, if the rumours were to believed, their Tony was even putting together a place for all of them to stay. 

 

Steve really would have felt horrible for all the ways he had failed in his mission if it weren't for the time stone. In the end, it had been the Ancient One, this Ancient One, from this timeline, who had absolved him of his guilt. It was inevitable, it seemed.  The moment they came to the past, the instant they had stepped foot in it, the timelines had diverged. All Steve could help now was to ensure that each one had all their infinity stones, all the weapons they’d need for their own future battles, the components necessary for a good timeline. Steve didn't know what that meant for his own timeline, but, well. It could be worse, he supposed. He had learned a lot about vaccines in his time in the future, and it seemed this Loki could be an excellent inoculation against the Thanos who would be coming for them. 

 

_ 4 mississippi  _

 

He didn’t run into any problems in 1970, despite the  base being on alert after Steve and Tony had infiltrated it, largely because Dr. Pym had noticed immediately that his formula had gone missing. After Asgard, the security in New Jersey seemed laughable. Steve was easily able to replace the vials of Pym particles and the Tesseract. Dr. Pym may never trust Shield again, but Mar-Vell would find her power source, and Carol would have her day. That was the reason Steve was here. 

 

On the other hand, hunting down Zola and exposing the Hydra leak in Shield in a particularly flashy and stylish way had been purely for his own enjoyment. Making sure Peggy knew where to look for Bucky had been his duty. He didn’t reveal his presence to her. Not then. Not with the picture of her husband and family there on her desk, right opposite to the one of himself. But it did give him an idea. 

 

_ 5 mississippi  _

 

1945 was home. It always had been. He had lost it, he thought forever. Maybe it was wrong to do what he did, taking his own place. Steve didn’t care. Timelines were splitting off from each other every day. He had created his own fair share in the last year, but he had never been able to change what had really mattered until now. In this timeline, here and now, in this one they deserved to be happy. 

 

He told Peggy, of course. He could never lie to her. Bucky figured it out pretty quickly too, and Howard was as sharp as always. Steve told himself he would stay only until the Steve of this timeline was found, and he kept that promise. But then, he had never known where they ended up finding him, so it's not like he could speed up that process. It took the same whole seventy years, and seventy years is a lifetime. So he spent a lifetime there, with this Peggy and this Bucky and this Howard. And then there was Maria, and then Tony, and Natasha, and Clint and Bruce. He watched as everyone around him grew up, grew old. Everyone except himself, and Bucky. He wondered if this was what it would have been like, if he hadn’t fallen into the ice, and wondered if it was better after all. Still, he lived. He lived his life, and kept another promise he’d made to Natasha, way back when, in another time. 

 

The day they found Steve, the real, native Steve. He kissed them all good-bye, wiped their tears, and asked them to take care of his other self. He didn’t feel so bad. He had been selfish long enough. Their Steve would have a real family to wake up to, and the world would be safe, prepared for the coming storm. This Thanos would never stand a chance.  

 

_ And just a breath more _

 

He knew something was wrong when he came back. Everything ached. He supposed it was his punishment for the damage he had done to the time stream. When you mess with time, time messes back, isn’t that what Tony had said? Actions have consequences. He had moved though so much time for so long, without it ever touching him. Now, at the end, all of that same time had moved through him. It was only appropriate, really. 

 

Then there was Sam, and Steve knew the shield he had brought back with him was meant for a better man than he could ever be. And when Sam asked about the family he left behind, he decided not to confess. Not here. Not now. Not yet. 

 

And then there was Bucky. Who always knew. Who didn’t need confession, because he could read Steve like an open book. 

 

“You really are so dumb.”

 

“Well, turns out I did take all the stupid with me.”

 

“Shut up, old man. I know we talked about this, and this was your plan or whatever, but c’mon. Don't be a martyr. You think I haven’t heard about what happened to Scott when you guys first botched his time jump? Just let Bruce fix you up, we have the Pym particles to spare now.”

 

Bucky clapped him on the back, same as he always did. Then he walked off, back to Bruce and Sam, as if he knew Steve would be following right behind him. Like he always had before. And, well, maybe, just maybe, he would. For  _ his  _ Bucky. For  _ this  _ family.

 

Maybe he could live life here, in this timeline, after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> Just saw Avengers Endgame and I had so many thoughts it was hard to get to sleep at night. Yes I know I've fallen behind on Runnin' Down a Dream, its been a bear of a month, and yes I will get back to it, but this needed out. I did enjoy the movie, I really did, but I think I enjoy it better with my coda here. I hope they do run with the alternate timelines because what a sandbox! Want a post civil war/no infinity war fic? thats 2014 timeline canon! want a classic avengers tower "everyone has a floor" fic? thats 2012 timeline right there! want a nice little steve survives ww2 fic? 1945 timeline baby. and more! 
> 
> plus, if you need old!steve to get young again without affecting his memories? well, did they or did they not show that they have that very technology, eh?
> 
> and? why not trade the soul stone for its victims? why couldnt that be a thing? bring em all back, it couldnt be that many.
> 
> so so so. maybe I like to rationalize away bit and pieces I dont like, and fit it into the canon possibilities. but thats what fanfic is all about, isnt it? 
> 
> as always, the indomitable winterofthedarkestlight was my beta.


End file.
